1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a textual information processing apparatus capable of performing both ink-printing and Braille embossing on the same tape, a method of processing textual information in a textual information processing apparatus, a program that implements such a method, and a storage medium on which such a program is stored.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known to produce a Braille label on which Braille characters (raised letters) recognizable by vision-impaired persons and ink-printed characters (written letters printed with ink) recognizable by sighted persons are formed on the same tape in parallel (or in an overlapping area) so that the label can be recognized by any person.
In Braille embossing technology, it is known to represent a character such as a syllabary character using six dots formed in a Braille cell (6-dot Braille cell). To form recognizable Braille characters, the cell size, the cell-to-cell space, and other parameters are determined according to a de facto standard (FIG. 4). When textual information is given, the length of an area in which to form Braille characters representing the given textual information is uniquely determined by the number of Braille characters according to the de facto standard.
In contrast, in common technology of printing characters with ink (hereinafter, referred to as ink-printing), given textual information can be printed in various layouts or formats in terms of printing positions, character sizes, fonts, character decoration, etc. In the case of Japanese characters, the total number of characters representing given textual information varies depending on types of characters, which can be kanji (Chinese) characters or kana characters (Japanese syllabary characters). In many cases, ink-printed characters are formed together with Braille characters in the same area or close areas. However, because of the possible large variety of layouts or formats of ink-printed characters, a complicated and troublesome task and knowledge about the de facto standard for Braille characters are needed to determine a proper layout or format of ink-printed characters so as to well match Braille characters formed according to the de facto standard.